VZCZCXRO0534
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #1558/01 1901338
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091338Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5489
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 001558 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KWMN SOCI JO
SUBJECT: HONOR CRIMES IN JORDAN:  THE TRIBAL PERSPECTIVE 
 
REF: A. AMMAN 1509 
     ¶B. AMMAN 1318 
     ¶C. AMMAN 1204 
     ¶D. AMMAN 1203 
     ¶E. AMMAN 471 
 
AMMAN 00001558  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Tribal leaders have a unique perspective 
on the issue of honor crimes in Jordan.  In their role as 
mediators of community disputes and exemplars of morality, 
sheikhs frequently prevent domestic squabbles from escalating 
into honor crimes.  The tribal leaders we talked to 
criticized media coverage of the issue and noted that violent 
incidents caused by slights to a family's honor are 
relatively rare.  While a minority of sheikhs attempted to 
justify the practice of honor crimes, most claimed that the 
practice is self-defeating in the eyes of tribal law. 
Sheikhs see marriage as the ultimate solution to the problem 
of honor crimes, but exiling women or their families is often 
used to prevent violence as well.  Tribal leaders reject the 
use of legislation or increased penalties as a way to combat 
honor crimes and suggested instead that tribal leaders needed 
to become more involved in their communities and respond to 
honor crimes in a uniform fashion.  End Summary. 
 
The Tribal Perspective 
---------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Much of the debate on honor crimes in Jordan occurs 
among the educated elite.  Newspaper editorials and NGO 
reports often outline the contours of the problem, but rarely 
cite traditional voices who are considered hostile to their 
point of view.  In an effort to more fully understand the 
practice, post sought out tribal leaders in both rural and 
urban communities who are frequently branded as either active 
or passive supporters of honor crimes.  The sheikhs we met 
with were surprisingly forthcoming about their views on honor 
crimes and their practical experiences in trying to prevent 
them. 
 
The Nature of the Problem 
------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The sheikhs emphasized that honor crimes in Jordan 
are very rare and criticized the media for blowing the 
problem out of proportion.  One tribal leader told us that he 
commonly deals with disputes involving "land and sheep," but 
has never in his long career encountered a case where a 
slight against family honor led to violence.  Some tribal 
contacts denied that honor crimes are an issue at all among 
Jordanians and blamed the problem on foreign workers from 
Egypt and Iraq.  (Note:  There is no evidence to suggest that 
this is the case.  End Note.)  Tribal leaders also challenged 
the popular stereotype that honor crimes are a rural 
phenomenon, pointing out that most killings occur in lower 
class areas of large cities.  Many tribal leaders see the 
tightly knit and religiously active nature of rural 
communities as a bulwark against the social problems that 
lead to honor crimes. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) While conventional wisdom among elite commentators 
is that honor crimes are the result of a "backwards tribal 
mentality,"  tribal leaders take the opposite view.  They 
believe that honor crimes are the result of too little tribal 
influence, not too much.  From their perspective, migrants to 
Jordan's cities move from an atmosphere where the community 
deals with problems through established tribal authority 
structures into a free-for-all where nobody is socially 
accountable for their actions.  Sheikhs told us that their 
salons are "open twenty-four hours" for resolution of 
disputes -- a benefit not available to rootless city dwellers. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Most of the sheikhs we talked to credited tribal 
mediation of disputes for preventing disputes from escalating 
into honor crimes.  Sheikhs are traditionally responsible for 
negotiating solutions for domestic disputes over marriage, 
divorce, and relationships between the sexes.  When a problem 
surfaces in their communities that involves family honor, 
tribal leaders are charged with keeping the debate civil and 
resolving problems before they spiral out of control.  From 
the tribal perspective, the fact that the vast majority of 
domestic disputes are successfully dealt with by the tribal 
infrastructure ensures that honor crimes are the exception, 
not the norm. 
 
Honor Crimes in Tribal Law 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Sheikhs told us repeatedly that honor crimes are 
self-defeating in the tribal system of law and social 
practice (Refs C and D).  Since tribal ethics value 
generosity and chivalry above all else, an honor crime only 
 
AMMAN 00001558  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
proves that the perpetrator lacks the honor that he claims to 
defend.  While tribal law honors women in different ways than 
the modern world does, sheikhs nevertheless highlighted the 
special value the tribes place on the contributions of women 
to the family and community.  Several tribal leaders pointed 
out that honor crimes can spark a needless cycle of revenge 
killings that ultimately results in casualties among the 
perpetrator's family.  On top of the futility of honor crimes 
in the system of tribal law, sheikhs pointed out that there 
is no justification in Islam for such a practice. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Not all of the sheikhs were unanimous in their 
belief that tribal law condemns honor crimes.  A prominent 
leader of the Beni Hassan tribe (known in Jordan for its 
hard-line stance on social issues) said that slights to a 
family's honor caused by alleged sexual impropriety could 
only be cleansed by the death of both the man and the woman. 
(Note:  There have been no reported cases of honor crimes 
against men to our knowledge.  End Note.)  Furthermore, 
unlike most tribes in Jordan, the Beni Hassan tribe does not 
believe that marriage can cleanse a family's honor. 
 
The Tribal Solution:  Marriage or Exile 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Sheikhs were unequivocal in their support for 
marriage as the ultimate solution for honor crimes and said 
that most disputes end when tribal leaders convince (or 
force) a couple to marry.  Several tribal leaders lamented 
the difficulty that many couples face in getting married and 
implied that the rising cost of marriage and overly picky 
relatives were increasingly driving young people into 
clandestine relationships. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Exile is another tool that tribal leaders often use 
to head off a potential honor crime.  Sheikhs told us that 
women accused of slighting the family's honor are often sent 
away to a far corner of Jordan to avoid an escalation of 
tensions.  The families of these women frequently request 
exile as a solution to avoid choosing between killing their 
daughters or suffering the scorn of the community.  Exile 
allows families and sheikhs to distance themselves from the 
problem to let cooler heads prevail.  Tribal leaders told us 
that many exile agreements are temporary -- they end when a 
marriage agreement is brokered or families formally agree not 
to react violently. 
 
The Tribal Role in Prevention of Honor Crimes 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Tribal leaders have a unique -- and ultimately 
self-serving -- perspective on what can be done to prevent 
honor crimes.  Many sheikhs said that honor crimes are 
evidence that tribal leaders are not doing their job.  The 
traditional role of the sheikh is to prevent disputes from 
escalating into a problem for the community at large.  The 
existence of honor crimes proves to many of our tribal 
interlocutors that sheikhs must be more proactive in watching 
over their kin, involving themselves in resolution of local 
disputes, and proving themselves worthy of the community's 
trust in dealing with sensitive issues. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Sheikhs were unanimous in arguing that the 
solution to honor crimes does not lie in amending the penal 
code to allow for harsher penalties, but rather in their own 
intervention in community life.  In their view, changing the 
penal code represents merely a reaction that will not stop 
honor crimes.  One group of tribal leaders suggested that a 
more effective way of approaching the issue would be to 
create a common understanding among tribal leaders of how to 
deal with honor crimes in local communities.  They suggested 
that the government could bring tribal leaders together to 
develop a consensus among the tribes on solutions that could 
be applied throughout Jordan. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Several sheikhs talked about the role of education 
in solving the honor crimes problem.  From their perspective, 
however, "education" does not mean formal, institutionalized 
training.  To tribal leaders, education means knowing and 
appreciating the role that tribal law and tribal leaders play 
in informal dispute resolution.  Sheikhs told us that the 
encroachment of the modern world into the life of the tribes 
had weakened their ability to intervene in community life and 
maintain societal peace.  In their view, teaching younger 
members of the tribes about the proper role of the sheikh in 
dispute resolution could be the first step in developing 
their use of tribal avenues to prevent honor crimes from 
happening. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
AMMAN 00001558  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶13.  (SBU) In spite of their lack of unanimity in condemning 
the practice and continuing promotion of conservative 
cultural norms, tribal leaders believe they have a role to 
play in the prevention of honor crimes in Jordan.  While 
sheikhs sometimes disagree on the intrinsic morality of honor 
crimes, they do agree that proper tribal leadership prevents 
family squabbles from reaching the point where an honor crime 
occurs.  The lack of an unequivocal stance against honor 
crimes by tribal leaders causes activists in Jordan to see 
sheikhs as part of the problem rather than part of the 
solution.  As a result, there is little dialogue between 
tribal leaders and civil society that could lead to a common 
understanding and cooperation.  Similarly, Jordan's 
government has yet to engage the tribes in the fight against 
honor crimes or bring sheikhs and activists together in a 
constructive way. 
Beecroft